This invention relates generally to the field of telephony, and more particularly to an improved telephone connector block construction of a type used to interconnect subscriber pairs to office switching equipment.
In patent application Ser. No. 583,781, filed June 4, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,096, dated Mar. 15, 1977 and assigned to the same assignee as the present application, there is disclosed a connector block in which the main body thereof is of generally planar configuration and is mounted in vertical orientation such that pairs of oppositely positioned surfaces are exposed to present pin terminal connecting points on each surface. Plural numbers of such blocks are mounted in mutually parallel relation upon a frame, leaving sufficient space therebetween to permit access to the terminal pins to permit wire wrapping devices on one side, and the usual plug type connectors, often employing protective components on the other side. Since the blocks are considerably deeper than wide, this construction permits maximum utilization of the available space on the frame which mounts the blocks in terms of the number of subscriber pairs accommodated per unit of frontal area.
There are occasions, however, where the minimum permissible space between adjacent connector blocks is not available, and accordingly, the use of wire wrapping devices for placing the ends of jumper conductors upon the connector pins of the block is not possible. Older types of connector blocks having forwardly projecting terminal pins may, of course, be employed. Such blocks normally require much more frontal area per subscriber pair because of the necessity of also mounting the connector modules on a forwardly facing surface as well.